1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a battery holding structure, particularly to a battery holding structure for an electric work vehicle equipped with a battery-driven electric motor, and relates to a work vehicle provided with the same.
2. Background Information
In recent years, electric work vehicles have been proposed in the field of work vehicles such as excavators with consideration for environmental problems and so forth. For example, an electric excavator described in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2010-121328 employs an electric motor to be driven by batteries instead of an engine installed in a well-known hydraulic excavator. Further, a hydraulic pump is configured to be driven by the electric motor and supply hydraulic pressure to a hydraulic cylinder for driving a working machine through a control valve.
At present, a large number of batteries are required for driving an electric motor in such an electric excavator as described above. In view of this, such a battery holding structure has been proposed as described in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2008-44408. The battery holding structure described in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2008-44408 includes a plurality of chassis, a rack and a plurality of fixation means. Here, each of the plural chassis accommodates a plurality of batteries, and further, the plural chassis are stacked in the rack. Then, the plural chassis are designed to be fixed to the rack by means of the plural fixation means. Moreover, in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2008-44408, a battery accommodation region is disposed in the rear part of a revolving unit, and the plural batteries are accommodated with use of the aforementioned battery holding structure in the battery accommodation region. Furthermore, the plural batteries and a plurality of inverters are disposed instead of a counterweight installed in a well-known hydraulic excavator.